. Wherefore, good reader, that I save them may, I now with them the very dotterel' play; Yet he nor I would like them be in vice, While by their playthings I would them entice, To heaven, for that's prepared for girls and boys. As to shun graver things; I seek to please Some, I persuade me, will be finding fault, No doubt some could those grovelling notions raise The name of a bird that mimics gestures.-(ED.) 2 Indelible, as when raw material is dyed before it is wove, every grain receives the dye.-(ED.) Wise Solomon did fools to piss-ants' send, To learn true wisdom, and their lives to mend. Yea, God by swallows, cuckoos, and the ass,' Shows they are fools who let that season pass, Which he put in their hand, that to obtain Which is both present and eternal gain. I think the wiser sort my rhymes may slight, But what care I, the foolish will delight To read them, and the foolish God has chose, And doth by foolish things their minds compose, And settle upon that which is divine; Great things, by little ones, are made to shine. 6 I could, were I so pleas'd, use higher strains: And for applause on tenters stretch my brains. But what needs that? the arrow, out of sight, Does not the sleeper, nor the watchman fright; To shoot too high doth but make children gaze, "Tis that which hits the man doth him amaze. And for the inconsiderableness Of things, by which I do my May I by them bring some good thing to pass, As Samson, with the jawbone of an ass; Or as brave Shamgar, with his ox's goad (Both being things not manly, nor for war in mode), I have my end, though I myself expose To scorn; God will have glory in the close. J. B. mind express, 3 For this use of the word 'handle,' see Jer. ii. 8. 'They that handle the law.'-(ED.) 4 This word, with pismire and emmet, has become obsolete. 'Ant' is the term now universally used.-(ED.) See Ps. lxxxiv. 3; Le. xi. 16; Nu. xx. • A machine used in the manufacture of cloth, on which it is stretched. (ED.) 1 A BOOK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, &c. DIVINE EMBLEMS, OR TEMPORAL THINGS SPIRITUALIZED, &c. I. UPON THE BARREN FIG-TREE IN GOD'S VINEYARD. Art thou not planted by the water-side? |